First let me say that the salmon fishing on Lake Ontario is on fire right now! That, and it will continue to get better for the next 6 weeks or so as salmon begin their heavy migratory movements toward their rivers of origin! Couple both of those items with our location in the center of Mexico Bay and you have the recipe for an incredible fishing cocktail! This past Saturday we had the chance to fish most of the day directly in front of DOA Headquarters in Mexico Bay and the fishing was outstanding. During the day we found our success in 185 feet of water, located the appropriate fishing temperature in the 85-100 foot depth range, utilizing both spoons and flashers rigged with imitation cut bait rigs made by Soco Baits. (Check them out at www.socobaits.com) . Our fish came primarily on a blue pattern, with the Moonshine Blue Jeans spoon, the Dreamweaver Blue Jeans UV Spin Doctor trailed with a custom DOA Blue Betty Teaser Rig tipped with a Soco Prime Cut in the Lights Out pattern. After some tough adventures in early July it was a relief to see this fishing could be easy again!
So, what was different? First, during our last trip I experimented with longer leads from our down rigger to the bait. That means more line being let out before attaching the line to the downrigger cable. That worked again this week, as our spoon bite was surprisingly active. Often, as the fish begin their evolution to "staging", or preparing to run their spawning rivers, the spoon bite slows dramatically. Seeing some of the recent pictures of fish caught by local fishermen which showed the fish becoming markedly darker in color, I believed the staging pattern would be our primary method of catching fish. During staging using gaudy flashers with trolling flies or cut bait rigs is the best way to take fish. While our flasher/cut bait rig took hits, we primarily caught our fish on spoons. We were successful running spoons 60-80 feet behind our boat, using the extra distance to entice fish that may have been wary of the downrigger cable or the cannonball itself.
Another difference was our success with a primarily blue color pattern on our baits. When we mentioned what we had succeeded with to a local tackle shop employee we were met with what could easily have been described as a derisive chuckle and the sarcastic response of, "If they bit that they must be chewing!" Well, if using blue spoons, flashers, cut baits and teaser rigs to great success is the wrong way to do things then maybe we don't need to do things right! I have to keep telling myself that while established patterns work well, sometimes the fish are looking for something just slightly different than the norm. Its hard for me to imagine working at a tackle shop and openly scoffing at what a customer used successfully that very day! Call me crazy, but I would be interested to learn that fish are being taken with a wide variety of techniques and would be happy to share that with my customers. Seems like a decent way to sell some of those items that often go overlooked on the shelf!
All that said, the fishing is great right now and will continue to improve for the next several weeks. Already looking forward to my next weekend on the lake. Until then, tight lines to all!
コメント